


A Night, A Week, A Month, A Year

by TiedyedTrickster



Series: Delightfully M-rated [7]
Category: DBZ - Fandom, Dragon Ball
Genre: ...so why am I writing about you so much lately?, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Established Relationship, M/M, Rare Pair, SO MUCH FLUFF, Tien you're not actually one of my favorite characters, and cute, don't hate you just... not my favorite, established relationship sex, formation of a triad, god Tien quit being adorable, hey look a threesome with three people in it!, mostly just sexytimes, teasing and flirting, unlike my last one!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-29
Updated: 2015-09-29
Packaged: 2018-04-24 01:32:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4900420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TiedyedTrickster/pseuds/TiedyedTrickster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which an invitation is made to Tien for as long as he wishes to accept it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Night, A Week, A Month, A Year

**Author's Note:**

> (Normally I’m a fan of the ‘Tien starts a farm’ thing, but for this instance, he hasn’t, and is doing the whole nomad/eternal training journey thing. Also, this is sort of an AU of my normal Radcha sexytimes AU. Because I make AUs of AUs. I’m cool like that.).
> 
> Warning: Includes penetration and triad relationship dynamics.

When he first met him, Tien found Raditz to be brash, arrogant, and wily, an over-aggressive and untrustworthy associate of necessity.

Somehow, over the years, though, the saiyan has transformed to become bold, confident, and clever, still overly-aggressive at times, but a loyal ally whom Tien trusts with his back. And, somewhere between kidnapping Gohan and helping defeat Cell, the tall saiyan has gained a place as one of Tien’s handful of friends.

Which is one of the reasons it hurts so much to find out that Raditz, as well as all this, has also walked off with the heart of the man Tien’s been quietly in love with for years. It’d be so much easier if they were enemies, if he could hate the tall saiyan, but, as things stand, he can’t. Not when Raditz is clearly besotted with the scarred Z Warrior, not when Yamcha lights up like he does when they’re together. Because Yamcha deserves to be loved like this, to be treated like he’s the most precious thing in his partner’s world, and to be respected for it as well. For all that he’s been through, for all that he is, Yamcha deserves this. Tien just wishes he’d been the one to give it to him.

But he waited too long and now, well… he’s getting over it. It’s been a year since the group found out that their two long-haired members were together (and apparently longer since they actually _got_ together), and Tien’s getting over it, enough that when they invite him to supper and Chaotzu can’t come, Tien goes anyway, because they’re his friends, and he’s never been one to sacrifice what he has for what could have been. So he flies over to Kung Pao Rock to enjoy his friends’ company and Yamcha’s amazing cooking, and he discovers that, shit, he’s not as over his friend as he’d thought.

It’s just, Yamcha’s so… himself. Laughing and chatting, happy and warm, it’s like he’s lived in the desert so long that the sunlight’s just a part of him now (and who knows, maybe it is). And he’s always been so free and casual with physical contact… it’s wonderful and painful all at once, especially with the way Raditz’s tail keeps brushing lightly against Tien’s leg under the table during supper. A casual reminder of who’s the one making Yamcha so happy, as though his mere presence isn’t enough to do so.

After the meal, Tien thanks them both and stands up to leave. He has things he needs to meditate on, things he needs to properly accept and let go of if he wants to keep this friendship.

Yamcha shoots him a puzzled look when he does this. “So soon? We were gonna go up on the roof – the stars are amazing out here, you’ll love it!”

And of course Yamcha remembers that Tien had enjoyed star-gazing when they had trained on the Lookout. The triclops shakes his head. “I don’t want to intrude.”

“Intrude?” Yamcha tilts his head, puzzled. Then a light goes on in his eyes, and he asks, somewhat hesitantly, “Um, Tien? You… _do_ realize that this is supposed to be a _date_ … right?”

And that- Tien can’t help shooting his old friend and one-time rival a hurt look at that. “Then why invite _me_?!”

Raditz lets out a bark of laughter at his and just raises an eyebrow when Yamcha glares at him. “What?”

“Be nice!”

“Oh, come on, I told you he wouldn’t get it if we did it this way!”

“Lavender! So much lavender! And peppermint! And onions and garlic and basil-”

“Okay, okay, I’ll be good! Even if you _are_ being petty about this. Look, see how good I’m being, standing over here and not doing anything?”

Tien looks between the two lovers as they banter, confused and upset. “What’s going on?”

Yamcha sighs and shakes his head, walking over to him with a rueful smile. “Sorry, Shinhan. _I_ thought we were being pretty obvious, but I guess not. Maybe this’ll help.”

And he puts his hands on Tien’s shoulders, leans forward, and kisses him.

And, for a moment, Tien lets him, because… just because. Then he puts his hands on Yamcha’s shoulders and gently pushes him away. “Yamcha,” he says firmly, resisting the urge to plead, “What’s going on? Because if this is a whim, or- or a casual fling-”

“It could be,” Raditz says from where he’s leaning against the wall, arms folded, “Could be for one night, or two, or a week, or a month, and afterwards you’d leave.”

“Or,” Yamcha says, grinning slightly, “You could stay. That’s why people go on dates, right? To find people they wanna stay with.”

“But-” Tien flounders, because they can’t be offering- they _can’t_ be- “But you already have each other!”

“We do,” Yamcha agrees, and he turns to smile at Raditz, warm and adoring, and it’s met with a soft look Tien would have deemed the saiyan incapable of if he hadn’t seen it himself just now. Then Yamcha turns back to Tien and his smile is still so warm and his eyes are hopeful. “We do have each other,” he repeats, “And it’s wonderful. And, if you want, we’d like you to be a part of it, too.” And he grins, scratching the back of his neck with one hand, but his eyes are still locked on Tien’s.

Tien, for his part, swallows, looks between the two of them. He hadn’t expected this, hasn’t ever really considered Raditz that way before, though the man’s handsome enough, in his own angular way. And as for Yamcha, well… he’s been in love with him for years.

“You don’t have to promise us forever right away, or even at all,” the man in question says as Tien hesitates, “But… can we try? Will you be a part of us, at least for one night?”

“Yes…” the word is little more than a breath, and there was no possibility that it could ever have been no, but apparently Yamcha doesn’t know that because his smile is wide and bright and relieved, and he leans forward and kisses Tien again, and Tien lets himself close his eyes and wrap his arms around Yamcha and kiss him back, because he’s had dreams like this, and that brilliant smile had finally been for him…

Then Tien makes a muffled noise into Yamcha’s mouth, because a warm presence has just appeared behind him, and a large pair of hands have slipped under Tien’s shirt to caress his stomach. He eyes snap open and, breaking the kiss, he turns slightly, red-faced, to see Raditz behind him.

The saiyan grins, a little smug, a little challenging, and very inviting. “Why so surprised, Shinhan? He kept saying ‘we’ and ‘us.’ Did you really think he was the only one here who wanted you?”

And he catches Tien’s chin lightly with one hand to tilt his head back slightly, then kisses him over the shoulder and Tien goes scarlet, because Raditz’s other hand is still stroking his abdomen, and because Yamcha seems to have taken all this as a sign that he really should be sucking on Tien’s neck, so he is.

And Tien’s not really used to being shorter than other people. He’s six foot two, with two inches on Yamcha, three on Goku, and a ridiculous number on Krillin. His shoulders are wide enough to support the extra set of arms he sometimes has (and he’s not sure if it’s a side effect of the technique or not). In short, he is not a small man, not by any stretch of the imagination, but Raditz can look Piccolo dead in the eye in his bare feet, and he’s built proportionally. The saiyan has to actively bend down to kiss him, and it’s strange, so strange, Tien’s not used to feeling small, but it’s also-

-he makes another muffled noise when he realises this-

-it’s also a little exciting. Tien’s got one hand fisted in Yamcha’s shirt, and he’s actually kissing Raditz back and it’s nothing like how he would have guessed kissing Raditz would be. The man is slow and thorough, and when Tien tugs back because he needs to breathe Raditz lets him go without a fuss, though he stays close, his hand continuing to trace the lines of Tien’s muscles beneath his shirt.

“Tell us if we’re going too fast and we’ll stop,” he says with a faint smile, “It’s a nice night, and there’s more than one way to get us all seeing stars. I could show you Old Namek, and Vegetasei – they’re both visible tonight.”

Tien blinks at that. “But, those planets… they’re both gone, aren’t they?”

“Yes,” Raditz concedes, his smile taking on a wistful edge, “But they were so far from your world… the memory of them will hang in your skies for ages to come. And sometimes I like to look, and remember.”

“So, how about it, Tien?” his attention turns back to Yamcha, who’s relinquished his hold on Tien’s neck and is smiling at him again, “The roof or the bedroom – where do you want to go?”

“I-” Tien looks at them both, briefly wonders how in the world he ended up in this situation, at the speed with which it’s progressed, at how okay he’s finding himself to be with Raditz’s presence. Maybe it’s because he’s known them both for years – these aren’t strangers in a bar or a people he’s seen a time or two and gone for supper with, they’re men he’s trained and fought beside. And maybe- maybe he can admit to himself that he actually _has_ looked at Raditz like this before a time or two, has wondered, imagined, ever so briefly, with ever so much embarrassment, what the tall saiyan would look like stripped all the way, or, even more briefly, with even more embarrassment, how Raditz would look with Yamcha, when they were alone, naked and moving together…

Tien swallows, mouth dry. “I- If you’re okay with it… I’d really like to have sex.”

He’s rewarded for his honesty with a kiss on the back of the neck, and another on the lips, and a knee rubbing briefly between his legs, making him shudder, and then Yamcha’s got his hands and is tugging him to follow, a grin on his lips and mischief in his eyes as he leads them all to the bedroom, Raditz following on silent feet, detectable more by his copper-bright ki-presence than anything else, and this feels a bit like a dream except that it’s not, and Tien’s never been so glad to be awake before.

Kung Pao Rock is an old, strange structure, a home made of a single solid piece of stone, hollowed by sand and time and the occasional bit of help by more sentient beings; an odd mixture of nature and nurture. The bedroom is like an above-ground cave with windows, minus stalactites and stalagmites, and the bed’s large enough that, even with the three of them, there should be room.

“We’re both pretty tall,” Yamcha says when he sees Tien looking, “And we have a tendency to sprawl all over the place, so we got a big one.”

“And a good thing, too,” Raditz purrs behind him and Tien turns to look at the saiyan and _holy shit he’s naked when did that happen_ and it was obviously going to happen at _some_ point, and Tien’s seen him in _close_ to this state of undress before (because Raditz was apparently born without a sense of shame), but still, Tien’s never seen him- not _all the way_ -

…he looks really good…

Yamcha laughs when he looks over Tien’s shoulder to see what has him so flustered. “Yeah, he does that sometimes. He can be surprisingly quiet.” And Yamcha walks around Tien and over to Raditz, standing on his toes and pulling the man down slightly, and this kiss is different than the pecks on the lips the two sometimes exchange in public, or in the warm, sweet kiss he’d given Tien in the kitchen. This is hot and aggressive, with tongues and teeth, and by the time Yamcha pulls away Raditz is flushed and panting, and Tien’s more than a little weak-kneed himself.

The scarred man turns back to him, smiling, and slides out of his shirt, a move he’s got to have practiced at least a little to make it look that good. He drops it casually on the floor and saunters over to Tien. “You,” he smiles, “Are wearing way too many clothes.” He slips his hands into Tien’s sash. “We should do something about that, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Tien agrees breathlessly, tugging off his own shirt and feeling far less elegant then Yamcha had looked but the scarred man doesn’t complain, just carefully finds the end of Tien’s sash and unravels it from his waist so his pants slide to the floor and he’s left in his boxers, and sometime in the interim it seems Raditz must have helped Yamcha out of the rest of his clothes because now he’s flush against Tien, with only Tien’s boxers between them and oh _kami_ this feels good, feels good to put his arms around Yamcha and hold him close and kiss him, hard and hot and deep, like he’s been wanting to for a long time now, and to hear Yamcha whimper into it a little, feel his hands clutching Tien’s shoulders and how aroused this is getting him…

Yamcha’s flushed as well when Tien finally breaks off, with a pleased smile and his already dark eyes even darker than usual, that wonderful, wavy hair spilling over his shoulders and brushing Tien’s chest and oh kami, he’s wanted this so badly-

Then suddenly there are arms around them, both of them, and they’re lifted before being bodily deposited on the bed.

“Too much standing around,” Raditz says cheerfully as he joins them, and Yamcha laughs and swats him and calls him an idiot, and Tien can’t help laughing as well, and somehow this pulls their attention back to him. And now he’s got two sets of dark eyes staring at him, two black-haired men, powerful and handsome and so very different, but moving together now, communicating without word or sign as they move to either side of him, Yamcha licking Tien’s jaw, Raditz rubbing a cheek on his head, each of them sending a hand down to rest on Tien’s groin, making him gasp and shudder as they touch him through the suddenly-thin cotton still covering him there.

Yamcha grins at Tien, then moves his gaze to Raditz. “There’s something in the way, Raditz,” he murmurs and the saiyan huffs lightly, breath ghosting over Tien’s skin.

“Yes, there is.”

“Maybe if we ask him nicely, he’ll take them off.”

“Maybe he will.”

Two smiles directed at him, full of mischief, full of desire, full of promises. “How about it, Tien?” Yamcha asks, “Gonna take them off for us?”

Tien swallows, and there’s no _way_ that’s not happening soon, but before that- “Can I- can I look at you, first?” he asks, hopeful, nervous, not used to asking for this sort of thing, “Both of you?”

Yamcha grins at him. “Sure.” And he sits up, moving down the bed a bit to kneel on it, legs slightly parted, hands resting casually on his thighs.

Raditz doesn’t say anything, just smirks and sprawls back on the blankets, his tail brushing Tien’s leg as he does so. Unlike Yamcha, who’s sitting there quietly, simply making himself visible, Raditz is showing himself off, leaning on his elbows, surrounded by his wild hair, one leg slightly crooked… he looks like the subject of a painting. The saiyan smirks a little wider as he sees Tien looking at him, and his tail brushes Tien’s leg again, and it suddenly occurs to Tien that Raditz flat-out doesn’t _do_ that with his tail, not normally. He’s a lot more casual with letting it hang behind him instead of sitting tightly wrapped around his waist these days, but the only person he really _touches_ with it is-

Is Yamcha.

And the implications of this begin to sink in, and they’re kind of flabbergasting. Raditz is the only saiyan left who has managed to keep his tail in spite of everything, and he’s very protective of it, partially because he’s also the saiyan who most values his heritage but also because he’s never managed to train in more than halfway, and, according to him, the entire thing is like the palm of a hand – sensitive and full of nerve endings.

And now that same sensitive, protected tail is draped over Tien’s ankle, the end twitching lightly against his calf in what Tien is beginning to suspect is, from Raditz’s point of view, a very blatant sign of trust and acceptance.

And that… that strikes it home, in a way that the declarations and even the kissing hadn’t, that this isn’t just Raditz humouring Yamcha or acting out of casual lust. This is real. With _both of them_ , this is real, and Tien moves, not with haste but with purpose, and pulls Raditz up a little higher to place a firm kiss on his lips, and when Raditz opens his mouth Tien obligingly deepens it and the taller man _shivers_ under him and it’s a strange feeling, heady and sweet, to be able to inspire pleasure like this in someone else…

Eventually they separate, flushed and pleased with each other, and Tien turns and realises with a guilty start that he’d forgotten about Yamcha momentarily because he’d been so focused on Raditz, and Yamcha hasn’t moved since he sat down like that at Tien’s request, and his eyes are currently very wide, and his cheeks are red, and-

-oh, no, wait, Yamcha has changed position a little, he’s got one hand in his lap-

…it’s moving slightly…

…

…dear kami, that should not be nearly as arousing as it is…

“Tien,” Yamcha says, voice slightly distant, “If you don’t take those shorts off _right now_ , I’m doing it for you, and I’m shredding them.”

Tien swallows, fairly confident that his entire head is scarlet at the moment. “…right.”

He somehow gets his underwear off without kicking anyone, tearing it himself, or looking too horribly undignified as he does so (he hopes).

At which point Raditz looks at Tien’s groin and raises an eyebrow, lips quirking. “I thought your hair was black.”

Tien’s knees snap together and then up to his chest (and damn it all, how had he not considered the fact that they would see this?!?). “As far as you’re concerned, it is,” he hisses, face now red with embarrassment (because he hates, hates, hates his stupid, weird-coloured hair).

Raditz doesn’t look offended, just mildly curious. “Your eyebrows are black.”

“No, my eyebrows are _dark_ , everyone’s just so distracted by my third eye that they don’t look too closely and _think_ they’re black,” Tien sulks, and he’s being ridiculous, he knows it, but this is possibly the one part of himself that he really doesn’t like, and he wishes he’d been able to at least brace himself before they found out-

Yamcha crawls over and kisses his cheek. “Quit being so uptight, Shinhan,” he says quietly, “We’re not gonna tell. And you’re right,” his gaze goes upwards and he brushes a thumb over Tien’s left eyebrow, “They _aren’t_ black. Sorry I didn’t notice sooner.” Then he looks away, almost like he’s ashamed, “And I’m sorry- sorry I didn’t notice _you_ sooner. That you were alone when you didn’t need to be.”

“Hey,” Tien catches his shoulder, turns Yamcha back towards him, “Don’t do that, don’t act like it’s your fault. _I’m_ the one who never said anything and waited too long. And you see me now.”

Yamcha covers Tien’s hand with his own and smiles at him again, warm. “Yeah, I do.”

“For the record,” Raditz says from where he’s watching, chin propped in one hand, “He didn’t notice. _I_ noticed and pointed it out to him.”

“I did too notice!” Yamcha protests indignantly, “I just didn’t say anything at first because I was already going steady with _you_! Also, shut up, you’re awful!”

“Psh, I’m _amazing_.”

“Shut up anyway!”

And Tien watches them fighting, half serious half not, and he shakes his head and chuckles, making Yamcha turn his glare at him.

“What?!”

“Nothing,” Tien grins at him, “You’re just such a Turtle sometimes.”

Yamcha sticks his tongue out at him. “Crane bastard.” But it’s warm, fond, not the insult it used to be, and Yamcha’s smiling as he leans forward again, putting a hand on Tien’s knee as he does so. “Looking good, Tien.”

…so, Tien’s never going to be able to use that little call and response thing they sometimes do during training again without picturing this moment, without picturing Yamcha naked and leaning towards him, aroused, with desire in his eyes, which will probably make things at least a little awkward at some point, but at the moment he can’t bring himself to care too much, so he just smiles and gives the usual response. “Looking good, Yamcha.” He reaches out and brushes some hair back over Yamcha’s shoulder, then lets his hand trail down his chest, and Yamcha shivers a little, then pulls lightly with the hand already on Tien’s knee.

“So, you gonna put these down or what, Shinhan? ‘cause if you don’t, there’s gonna be no room down there for _me_.”

And that just sends Tien’s mouth sandpaper dry, and he swallows as he complies, then groans as Yamcha moves into his lap, pressing their groins close together and wrapping his arms around Tien’s shoulders, kissing his neck, his jaw, the corner of his mouth, and finally his lips, and Tien groans again, putting his own arms around Yamcha’s chest and pulling him close as they kiss and begin to move against each other, thrusting and grinding and hot, sweet friction, hands wandering, a tightening in his groin, and then he’s gasping Yamcha’s name as he comes hard and the sound Yamcha makes is wordless but enthusiastic as he joins him and then they’re panting and leaning against each other, Tien propping his head on Yamcha’s chest as he shakes with the aftermath of it. He feels Yamcha place a kiss on top of his head and he smiles, closing his eyes, and oh yeah, that was way better than his dreams…

He starts only a little at the feel of a cloth on him, soft and warm, cleaning them both up after that… just **that** , and Tien twitches a bit, because he’s still feeling hypersensitive. This results in a rumbly sort of chuckle and less pressure, which helps a little. He manages to open his third eye again to glance at Raditz, who’s tossing a carefully folded cloth over the side of the bed. The saiyan sees him watching, and gives them both a hopeful look.

“My turn?”

Yamcha laughs and gently pushes Tien back so he’s leaning on the pillows at the top of the bed, then squirms down so he’s lying propped up in Tien’s lap. “You can have me, since Tien’s looking a little wasted.”

Raditz raises an eyebrow at this. “And by ‘have you,’ you mean…?”

Yamcha grins at them both, hooking a hand behind one of his knees, “I mean grab the damn lube, hairball.” Tien gapes down at him as Raditz complies, and Yamcha gives Tien a slightly shy grin at his look. “We – me ‘n’ Raditz – we don’t always do the same thing in bed. And we tend to switch around and stuff, and… we won’t force you into anything, you know?” then he winces at something he must have thought of. “Shit, I should have asked – are you okay with _this_? Should I-”

“No…” Tien manages weakly, and only because Yamcha looks really concerned that he’s crossed a line, “It’s- it’s okay.”

“Oh. Good. Thanks, sorry,” he reaches up and trails his fingers down Tien’s chest with a smile, and Tien runs his fingers through Yamcha’s hair, not quite sure if he’s really about to see what he thinks he is, except, oh, yeah, he is, because Raditz is sliding oiled fingers into Yamcha, stretching and preparing him while Yamcha squirms and offers encouragement from Tien’s lap, and this is obviously not the first time they’ve done this. Then Raditz removes his fingers and is pressing into him for real, and Yamcha’s gasping and writhing as Raditz moves in him. The saiyan has his hands on Yamcha’s hips and is surprisingly quiet, though he responds to what few requests Yamcha makes readily enough as they move together and then Raditz gasps and shudders and Yamcha’s back arches as he makes a sound that conveys quite clearly how much he’s enjoying himself before going boneless, and Tien- Tien’s not sure if he’d want to participate – in either role – but, as Raditz crawls up beside Yamcha and curls around him, he thinks he wouldn’t mind watching again…

At this point, Raditz’s tail wraps around his ankle and Tien yelps as he’s pulled down by the foot, bracing for an impact that never comes because there’s an arm and hand there to catch his back and cup his head, preventing him from cracking either on the headboard. Raditz winks at him, and a couple of wriggles later Tien’s been firmly woven into the post-sex cuddle the other two are having. Yamcha’s in the middle, back pressed against Raditz, face mooshed into Tien’s chest, Raditz is still cupping Tien’s head with one hand, everyone’s arms and legs are tangled together, and, miraculously, there’s some blankets over all of them. It’s a form of intimacy Tien’s never really imagined, but he likes it. It feels a bit like all the quiet pleasures of being friends rolled up and magnified and somehow made better, and he drifts, the situation already so strange and dream-like that he’s not sure afterwards when reality ends and the actual dreams begin.

 

OoOoOoOoO

 

He wakes up the next morning with Raditz wrapped around him and Yamcha draped across both of them on his back, like some strange sort of blanket.

“There is no way that’s comfortable.”

He doesn’t realise he’s said this out loud until Yamcha cracks an eye open and smirks at him. “Please, I was trained by Pu’ar – I can sleep comfortably _anywhere_.”

“ **And** look good while doing it,” Raditz murmurs sleepily in Tien’s ear as Yamcha does a luxurious stretch and wriggle motion that could _definitely_ have been learned from a feline, and, Tien has to agree, Yamcha does look good, half-awake and smiling as the morning sun pours through the window onto him, the covers sliding pleasantly low on his hips.

Then the one-time bandit flips onto his stomach and gives Tien a peck on the lips. “Morning, three-eyes.”

“Morning,” Tien replies, feeling slightly dazed. It had been real. All of it, this was real…

“Regretting last night?”

Yamcha looks genuinely concerned that the answer to his question might be ‘yes,’ and so Tien manages to free an arm to reach up and stroke his hair. “No.”

And Yamcha closes his eyes and leans into his touch, smiling. “Good. ‘cause I’m not sure if I’d actually have been able to let you go if you wanted to leave.”

“If that was a subtle hint that I should be moving,” Raditz says from where he’s still wrapped around Tien like a friendly octopus, “Then you are going to be very disappointed.” To underscore his point, Raditz latches on a little more snugly, and Tien doesn’t protest because it’s kind of nice, being held like this, with Yamcha lying on top of them, chin resting on his arms and looking fond.

And there’s things they could do right now, in these positons, lots of things, but what they _choose_ to do is just lie there a little longer, waking all the way up slowly, and then get up and have breakfast. They talk and laugh and tease each other a little about the previous evening and, around the kitchen table, the future begins to form.

A night, then two, a week, and afterwards… Tien stays. It’s a relationship of three, where the dynamics are always shifting but where Yamcha always ends up running the kitchen while Raditz shops and does laundry and Tien manages the accounts and sorts out most of the squabbles between Chaotzu and Pu’ar (who are good friends, except when they aren’t). Everything else moves and shifts, responsibilities traveling from one person to the next as various things come up. They laugh and joke and fight and forgive and learn to make the shifting into a pattern, a dance that they’re all performing together until it becomes seamless, and they see stars together in more than one way. It goes on, a month, two months, a year, and afterwards… Tien stays. He stays, and he’s quietly glad that he hadn’t spoken up sooner.

**Author's Note:**

> Pu’ar and Chaotzu have bunk beds. Pu’ar has the top bunk, because she bet that Tien would need to be flat-out told it was a date, and Chaotzu bet that he wouldn’t. Also, as far as I’m concerned, Tien shaves his head because his hair is naturally a very interesting colour and he doesn’t like it. It’s undignified.
> 
> …I may or may not have gotten feels after writing “The Three Professors” and needed to write this as a result. Also, all of those scents Yamcha listed are considered strong to normal human noses. Raditz, like all saiyans, has an exceptionally keen sense of smell, much better than a human's, so too much of any one of these scents would likely have him sneezing or gagging because it would be so overpowering to him. So basically Yamcha's threatening Raditz in a way that is very effective but has little-to-no chance of long-term damage.
> 
> In my mind, Tien’s a little shy about this stuff, since he hasn’t had much experience with it. Raditz and Yamcha, however, have had a fair bit of experience, especially with each other, so they’re more comfortable and active with all this. Tien gets a little more assertive as he gets more comfortable. I also imagine Raditz eventually finding out Tien can grow extra arms and being very much “You need to do this in the bedroom, no, really, you do, Yamcha back me up, I’ve had sex with people with more than two arms, you do not know what you are missing, SO MANY HANDS, it’s GREAT!” 
> 
> Because, as mentioned above, Raditz was apparently born without shame, at least in regards to this sort of thing. He is also such a shit, but he’s usually a nice shit, so I tend to let him get away with it. And that thing where Raditz was brushing Tien’s leg under the table with his tail? That was the saiyan equivalent of footsies. Also, Yamcha was a little tricky to manage in this one, because for some reason whenever I write these three as a triad, he just sort of saunters up in my head and goes ‘follow me, boys,’ and other two just trail after him in a daze.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [How to care for a Yamcha](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5494481) by [DanHasOTPs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DanHasOTPs/pseuds/DanHasOTPs)




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